Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013

Well, we survived the end of the world yet again. I don't remember so much hype about a doomsday prophesy since the Y2K thing. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to wake up and NOT find zombies but I suppose life as we know it is a better option!

I have been absent for some time due to Christmas preparations and working with Big D and his new career move. He is going to be a long haul trucker! We got his Class 1 license, have him enrolled in school for the new year and even found him a job for when school is done. I think this is going to be the best career move for us both as we will be able to afford to buy me more fabric pay off debt and buy a house!

On the quilting side of things, I have done absolutely no more work on my museum quilt, including picking a winner for the name contest. I did, however, finish a quilt for my brothers girlfriend. She was the recipient of the Jump Rope quilt. Her condo is decorated with blue and she has a blue couch too so it seemed fortuitous. I snapped a picture of the two of them snuggling under it on Christmas morning!.

I also got some fabric from Tiny T and Big R. 15 fat quarters of quilting goodness!! Tiny T said she picked the packs at random but they actually work well together and with some of the fabric from my trip.  I even found a wonderful pattern on Pinterest.  The colours are similar to what I have so I thought it would be a neat idea.  Simple yet fun!  You can see a picture of what I hope to accomplish here.

Tiny T's mom got me a new Olfa rotary cutter which is super fancy shmancy! Most of my other Christmas stuff was history or quilting related. Mom and Dad even got me a new ironing board pad and cover so I no longer have to display my hideous one!! Yay!!

The old, ugly ironing board cover...blech!

TA DA!!! New pretty goodness!

My new super heavy duty iron!

The fabric from Big R and Tiny T

 

Same as above but with stash additions to make a new quilt

And now I'm off to work on the museum quilt while we still have the table out. Big D wanted to put it away after our Christmas party but I managed to convince him to leave it out for a while so I could do some sewing! Yay!!!

Working on my PhD

I have been SUPER busy in the last couple of days getting some quilt tops done.  I saw a picture on my Mom's Facebook page that really made me think, I had better get some sewing done before I start any more quilts.

With that being said, I cracked down and not only finished the Jump Rope quilt, but I have made a ton of progress on the Gryffindor quilt I've been designing.

I found this pin on Pinterest which gave me the inspiration to pick up the Gryffindor quilt again.  For those of you new to my blog, I drafted this pattern from a knitting project I did.  I turned each stitch into a 1" square of fabric.  The end result was 600+ tiny squares I need to assemble for the centre crest on the quilt.  I was doing them one at a time, block by block and I was really dreading my decision to make this quilt.  Not only was I pleased with the ease of assembling the centre crest now, but it makes the piecing more even.  Check out this section I re-did after seeing the results from the iron on interfacing.

I'm a little ashamed of my piecing, but I think you can see how much better the result is.  If you are ever considering doing a quilt with this many small pieces, I 100% recommend this method for constructing it!

On that note, I've been up far too late sewing and I need to get some sleep.  I have to be up early to hem my day dress if I want to wear it to work for Halloween tomorrow.  Some people go in store bought or scary costumes, history nerds go in period costume. :D

Back to Quilting

After I got home from work last night, I sat down and did some sewing.  I finally felt a little better from my cold and decided to make use of my time.  I was so in the zone I forgot my phone was in my purse on silent and missed a call from my mom...oops! I finally finished assembling the rows for the Jump Rope quilt!

I originally wanted to try to have no like colours touching in the rows or columns, but it seems kind of hard to avoid.  I don't think the few that are look bad so I'm going to leave it like that.  I did get three rows sewn together last night and pressed before I decided it was bedtime.  I'm hoping that I can finish it soon.  I have a blue plaid I wanted to use for the back but now I'm not sure if I want to use it anymore.  It doesn't seem to go with the top as much as I thought it would.  Time to go bed sheet shopping!!  Now I need to come up with a fun way to quilt this one.  I think I want to look for stencils and do a fancy design on this one.  Something other than just straight lines and swirls that I've done before.  If any of you out there have resources for that, let me know

And, for your viewing pleasure, my little "helper" Kokanee demonstrating the cat rule "if I fits, I sits"!

Busy Busy Busy

Once again, I have taken a hiatus from posting. Not only have I been working on my own projects like "Home at Last", I have been prepping for another year of Festival du Voyageur and starting on my custom quilt orders. I finished a hood for my Metis costume and a small pouch for my belt. I have been beading it as my project while I'm in the museum.

The quilt I'm making on order is for a one year old boy for his birthday. I am on a very tight one week deadline from start to finish because it has to be shipped out of province. It needs to be bound and it will be ready to ship. Im very excited about it!

Tomorrow is a busy day of regular work and then straight to Festival for another weekend of historical French fun. I'm sure I will be resembling something like the walking dead when the weekend is done, but it is worth it!

In addition to the Gryffindor quilt, Katie's Jump Rope quilt and Scraptacular (another of my own creation) I am thinking of starting The Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt. As if I don't have enough to do already! Lol.

On that note, I'm off to bed so I am well rested for my busy upcoming weekend.

Ooh! I almost forgot!!! I'm on Instagram now! Follow me @crazycraftingcatlady ....of course!

Another Day, Another Topper!

I think this is how I earn the "crazy" part in Crazy Crafting Cat Lady.  As I finish the top to "Home at Last" I started ANOTHER quilt.  If you're surprised, you must be new to following my blog!  My fabric stash has been getting out of control, so a scrap quilt was in order.  I have 13 of 30 blocks assembled from my progress tonight.  It's coming together nicely and I think the colours will complement each other.  I have scraps from my fall table topper, my brothers quilt, home at last, Tiny T's table topper and a few miscellaneous pieces.

Home at Last has been put on the back burner for the time being.  I have material for the backing but my plan to use up the remaining batting from my brothers quilt is not going to pan out.  There wasn't as much as I had thought.  For now, I think I'll focus on making the quilt tops for my scrap quilt, the Gryffindor quilt and Katie's Jump Rope quilt that I started back in early 2011.

A few of the blocks pieced and pressed for the Scraptacular quilt.

Home at Last quilt top assembled!

I have some very exciting news! My blog has been added to Quilting Gallery's blog list! This is a huge directory of some very wonderful quilting blogs and I feel quite honored to be included in this list!  Make sure you check out some of the other blogs listed there!